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Trotsky's Contribution to the Success of the Bolsheviks Up to 1922

Decent Essays

Trotsky's Contribution to the Success of the Bolsheviks Up to 1922

1.a) Trotsky’s contribution to the success of the Bolsheviks up to 1922 was mainly through the military; Trotsky was a close friend of Lenin which helped Trotsky get the place at the head of the Military Revolution committee of the Petrograd soviet. Under Trotsky’s leadership, the military revolutionary committee was actually planning to seize power of the government in 1917.

Trotsky was placed in a very powerful position in the Military and he desperately wanted to take power of the government. Trotsky then helped the Bolsheviks take power, and then an anti-communist group known as the whites had formed an army to fight against …show more content…

Under his leadership, life in the Red army was hard, discipline was very tough, anyone who tried to desert was shot.

b) Stalin emerged at Lenin’s successor because he was a loyal supporter of Lenin; also he was the commissar for nationalities and the general security of the communist party.

However, he also did have some points against him which shows why Stalin shouldn’t have won the election. Firstly, Stalin wrote that he himself should not be the successor of Lenin (this demonstrates how loyal Stalin was to Lenin), he did not believe that he was good enough to take over from Lenin, he did not think he was as good as Lenin, also Stalin came from a poor, working class background, which meant that some people did not believe that he should be in control of Russia. Lastly Stalin also did not have any outstanding achievements, which gives the question of why he should be the successor instead of Trotsky.

In some ways Trotsky deserved to win more than Stalin, Firstly most of the people of Russia thought that he was the second best leader after Lenin, which is a strong point in favour for Trotsky. Also he was known as a very strong leader already in the military, he organised the Bolshevik takeover in 1917 and he also took control of the red army during the Russian civil war.

However, Trotsky also had some points against him which proved to

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